New York Times Co. Earnings: Profit Slides

New York Times Co. (NYSE:NYT) reported its results for the fourth quarter. The New York Times Company is a media company that currently includes newspapers, Internet businesses, investments in paper mills, and other investments.

Results: Net income for New York Times Co. fell to $58.9 million (39 cents per share) vs. $67.1 million (44 cents per share) a year earlier. This is a decline of 12.2% from the year earlier quarter.

Revenue: Fell 2.8% to $643 million from the year earlier quarter.

Actual vs. Wall St. Expectations: New York Times Co. reported adjusted net income of 45 cents per share. By that measure, the company beat the mean estimate of 42 cents per share. Analysts were expecting revenue of $646.4 million.

Quoting Management: “In 2011 we made significant strides in our strategy to transform and rebalance our Company,” said Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., chairman and chief executive officer, The New York Times Company. “Our fourth-quarter results demonstrate the continued focus on building The Times’ digital subscription base and developing a new robust consumer revenue stream, while maintaining its significant digital advertising business. In the second half of the year, our digital initiatives also included the launch of the new pay site, BostonGlobe.com, and digital subscription packages at the International Herald Tribune. As of quarter end, paid subscribers to all of the Company’s digital subscription packages, e-readers and replica editions totaled about 406,000.”

Key Stats:

Revenue has fallen in the past four quarters. Revenue declined 3.1% to $537.2 million in the third quarter. The figure fell 2.2% in the second quarter from the year earlier and dropped 3.6% in the first quarter from the year-ago quarter.

The company has now topped analyst estimates for the last three quarters. It beat the mark by 2 cents in the third quarter and by 2 cents in the second quarter.

Looking Forward: The average estimate for the first quarter of the next fiscal year is steady at 6 cents a share. The average estimate for the fiscal year has seen a bump from 60 cents per share sixty days ago to 62 cents.